Simon Singh - Trick or treatment: the undeniable facts about alternative medicine

T HE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK ARE GUIDED ENTIRELY BY A SINGLE PITHY sentence, written over 2,000 years ago by Hippocrates of Cos. Recognized as the father of medicine, he stated:

There are, in fact, two things, science and opinion;

the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

If somebody proposed a new medical treatment, then Hippocrates declared that we should use science to decide whether or not it works, rather than relying on somebodys opinion. Science employs experiments, observations, trials, argument and discussion in order to arrive at an objective consensus on the truth. Even when a conclusion has been decided, science still probes and prods its own proclamations just in case it has made a mistake. In contrast, opinions are subjective and conflicting, and whoever has the most persuasive PR campaign has the best chance of promoting their opinion, regardless of whether they are right or wrong.

Guided by Hippocrates dictum, this book takes a scientific look at the current plethora of alternative treatments that are rapidly growing in popularity. These treatments are piled high in every pharmacy, written about in every magazine, discussed on millions of web pages and used by billions of people, yet they are regarded with scepticism by many doctors.

Indeed, our definition of an alternative medicine is any therapy that is not accepted by the majority of mainstream doctors, and typically this also means that these alternative therapies have mechanisms that lie outside the current understanding of modern medicine. In the language of science, alternative therapies are said to be biologically implausible.

Nowadays it is common to hear the umbrella term complementary and alternative medicine, which correctly implies that sometimes these therapies are used alongside and sometimes instead of conventional medicine. Unfortunately it is a lengthy and clumsy phrase, so in a bid for simplicity we have decided to use the term alternative medicine throughout this book.

Surveys show that in many countries over half the population use alternative medicine in one form or another. Indeed, it is estimated that the annual global spend on all alternative medicines is in the region of 40 billion, making it the fastest-growing area of medical spending. So who is right: the critic who thinks alternative medicine is akin to voodoo, or the mother who entrusts her childs health to alternative medicine? There are three possible answers.

1. Perhaps alternative medicine is entirely useless. Perhaps persuasive marketing has fooled us into believing that alternative medicine works. Alternative therapists might seem like nice people, talking as they do about such appealing concepts as natures wonders and ancient wisdom, but they might be misleading the public or maybe they are even deluding themselves. They also use impressive buzzwords like holistic, meridians, self-healing and individualized. If we could see past the jargon, then would we realize that alternative medicine is just a scam?
2. Or maybe alternative medicine is overwhelmingly effective. Perhaps the sceptics, including many doctors, have simply failed to recognize the benefits of a more holistic, natural, traditional and spiritual approach to health. Medicine has never claimed to have all the answers, and over and over again there have been revolutions in our understanding of the human body. So will the next revolution lead to a discovery of the mechanisms underlying alternative medicine? Or could there be darker forces at work? Could it be that the medical establishment wants to maintain its power and authority, and that doctors criticize alternative medicine in order to quash any rivals? Or might these self-same sceptics be puppets of the big pharmaceutical corporations who merely want to hold on to their profits?
3. Or does the truth lie somewhere in the middle?

Whatever the answer, we decided to write this book in order to get to the truth. Although there are already plenty of books that claim to tell you the truth about alternative medicine, we are confident that ours offers an unparalleled level of rigour, authority and independence. We are both trained scientists, so we will examine the various alternative therapies in a scrupulous manner. Moreover, neither of us has ever been employed by a pharmaceutical company, and nor have we ever personally profited from the natural health sector we can honestly say that our only motive is to get to the truth.

And our partnership brings balance to the book. One of us, Edzard Ernst, is an insider who practised medicine for many years, including some alternative therapies. He is the worlds first professor of alternative medicine, and his research group has spent fifteen years trying to work out which treatments work and which do not. The other of us, Simon Singh, is an outsider who has spent almost two decades as a science journalist, working in print, television and radio, always striving to explain complicated ideas in a way that the general public can grasp. Together we think that we can get closer to the truth than anybody else and, equally importantly, we will endeavour to explain it to you in a clear, vivid and comprehensible manner.

Our mission is to reveal the truth about the potions, lotions, pills, needles, pummelling and energizing that lie beyond the realms of conventional medicine, but which are becoming increasingly attractive for many patients. What works, and what doesnt? What are the secrets and what are the lies? Who is trustworthy and who is ripping you off? Do todays doctors know what is best, or do the old wives tales indeed tap into some ancient, superior wisdom? All these questions and more will be answered in this book, the worlds most honest and accurate examination of alternative medicine.

In particular, we will answer the fundamental question: Is alternative medicine effective for treating disease? Although a short and simple question, when unpacked it becomes somewhat complicated and has many answers depending on three key issues. First, which alternative therapy are we talking about? Second, which disease are we applying it to? Third, what is meant by effective? In order to address these questions properly, we have divided the book into six chapters.

Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the scientific method. It explains how scientists, by experimenting and observing, can determine whether or not a particular therapy is effective. Every conclusion we reach in the rest of this book depends on the scientific method and on an unbiased analysis of the best medical research available. So, by first explaining how science works, we hope to increase your confidence in our subsequent conclusions.